The Adventures Of Alan Oliver
by WealthyRaindrop
Summary: I try my hand at the marching band fan fiction. Alan Oliver is a Sophomore at High Plains High School. When a new girl is introduced to the school, Alan tries to win her heart, but how good is he? And is she everything that he was looking for?
1. Chapter 1

1. First Practice of the Season.

It was the middle of July, the sun burned at temperatures over 100 degrees everyday. Inside of the High Plains High School, the 2006-2007 marching band was currently setting up for the upcoming season. They all had their music memorized. The flutes had the many complex note runs almost complete, sure, it would take a few more months to iron out all their faults but that was to be understood. The clarinets were in almost the same spot as the flutes, except their part was a little less complex. The other instruments all had their parts mostly complete, and in the baritone section, I knew my part 0. Turning to my fellow baritone player, and best friend since 5th grade I asked: "So you ready for our sophomore year Mike?"

"Yes I am Alan, I have almost all the opener memorized, and the closer is completely done."

"What about the ballad?" I asked, Mike never was much for "slow" music.

"Yeah…..about that……"

"You didn't play the ballad any did you?"

"I looked at it, and played through it once or twice." Mike confessed.

"You have to have that played off before camp dude, you have less than a month!"

"Don't worry, this happened last year too, and did I not manage to pass it off?" Mike asked, trying to avoid the rant that was coming.

"Yes, and Durma threw a fit and told you that you better not do the same thing next year. I mean c'mon man it's not like it's that hard of a song to learn, it only plays for about two and a half minutes, that's the shortest section of the entire piece."

"Don't bug me about this man, I heard it last year, and I guarantee you I will hear it again next year. Why don't we change the current topic of discussion to something more appealing. My, my, that clarinet player looks awful fine…"

"If you are talking about anyone else but my sister then we are fine, but if she is the "fine" clarinet player you are referring to, you are in for a beating."

"Well, turn around and look for yourself." He said, satisfaction evident in his voice.

"Alright," I said, still not turning, not giving into his game, knowing full well that he tried this all the time last year, when my sister was a sophomore herself. "but if I turn around and the only person that your mentioning toward is Rachel, I swear the next time you……….come…….."

"So you see her now don't you, I told you." He said.

I couldn't see the smile on his face, but it was probably more of a grin, an evil malicious grin that practically screamed "I TOLD YOU SO!!" The spectacle of beauty I was viewing was not my sister, it was not any of the clarinets I had ever seen. The girl stood about even my height, which was about 5'9 and had black hair that extended about three inches below her shoulder line. Currently she was letting it hang freely, but I had little doubt that it would look good any way she decided to put it. She was wearing jeans that actually fit to a good degree, they didn't stick to her, and they didn't sag off, a rarity these days. She wore a black tee shirt that surprising left a lot to the imagination. From a distance I could tell she had her ears pierced, and on her left wrist was a charm bracelet that had more charms things on it that I had feet of small intestines. Complementing her figure at the very bottom were a pair of red Converse sneakers. Which seemed to complete the beauty that was………….

"Who is that?" I asked, realizing that I didn't know her name, I had never seen her before.

"I have no idea, I'm as surprised as you are to be honest." Mike said, making no effort to hide the fact that he was staring at her too."

"Did I miss something here?" I asked, slightly perturbed that he was staring like me, "you already have a girl friend, you should be looking at her." I said, nodding my head towards the flutes, where Cate sat, oblivious to our conversation at the moment.

"Hey! Just because your on a diet doesn't mean you can't look at the menu every now and then." Mike said, the malicious grin spreading across his face once again.

"As funny as that is, I cannot believe you just said that." I said, my head shaking all the while.

"But seriously dude, you better go talk to her, before Jon sees her, because you know he's going to be all over her." Mike said, referencing Jon Bluemet, a French Horn player, and womanizer.

"Well isn't he on a diet too?" I asked.

"Well, for him it isn't really a diet, it's more of a focus on one food until something better comes along, and in case you forgot, Sarah isn't as good a entrée as that fine piece of-"

"Alright stop!" I commanded, "you don't have any right to refer to anyone like that."

"I didn't mean it, I was just trying to make a point." Mike said, evidently hurt.

"Seriously or not, that's not any way for people to talk. I know everyone does it, but I thought you were better than that."

"I am man, c'mon, I was just joking."

"Right, but back to what you were saying, I can't just go up to her and talk to her. What am I gonna say? 'Hey, your cute, I don't know you, who are you?'" I said, joking.

"Why don't you try that one? Tell me how it works out." Mike said, knowing full well how shy I am around attractive girls, "just like that one time last year at Emily Calahans party…"

Tired of giving him warnings, I turned and punched him square in the arm, leading with my middle knuckle extended to maximize damage.

"Ouch man, what the hell?!" He said.

"I told you, that was a mistake and an accident.!" Last year, at the end of the year party, Emily Calahan decided to bring alcohol. Myself, believing that alcohol is for the stupidest people, refrained from drinking any, but that didn't stop me from making a move on her when she had downed around six beers. She shut me down, hard. But she didn't stop there, she even went so far as to bash me for the next three hours at the party, telling all sorts of lies what I won't even bother to repeat, because I myself am still haunted by a few of them. I assume she did it even more, but I left after that, fed up with her drunken stupor.

"Okay, I didn't mean to bring that up, it just seemed appropriate for the situation." Mike said, raising his hands in an "I surrender" gesture.

"Looks like you were right," I said, gesturing towards where the new girl was standing. None other than Jon Bluemet was currently conversing with her, "he doesn't waste any time does he?"

"Nope, and that's why you will always lose." Mike said.

"Not if I can help it." I said, starting to walk towards them. Knowing full well that Mike's eyes were fixed on me, I tried to imagine the look of surprise on his face as I veered off to the left, towards the flutes, towards Cate specifically.

"Hey Cate, what's up? I asked, glancing a look back at Mike, and giving him one of his grins that I hate so much. He was gesturing towards the girl, and mouthing "are you stupid?"

"Not a whole lot Alan, just getting ready for another exciting practice," She said, putting down her flute and looking past me at Mike, who was still holding his hands in suspended animation above his head, "okay, so spill, why is Mike giving you that look?"

"What look," I said, turning and pretending to see him for the first time today, "I thought he was giving you that look."

Looking up at me with a no-nonsense face, she calmly said "Alan Oliver, I know you, you have been Mike's best friend since we have been dating, and even before that. Something is going on between you two, and I am not directly involved, but I am his girlfriend, so I must be involved SOMEHOW, and the gesture that he was just doing leaves you little room to dodge the question."

Knowing full well the wrath I was going to bring upon myself, I said "So, have you memorized the ballad yet?"

"ALAN OLIVER!" She bellowed, loud enough to turn heads, even the heads of Jon and the girl, which is what I was trying to do, "what were you two talking about?"

Giving in, and not wanting to get the other half of my ear drums blown out, I decided to yield to her. "So who is that new girl?"

"Ahhhhhh, I see now, that's what this is about, well, I don't know who she is, she moved in from out of state a few weeks ago, and now she's here, but it looks like Bluemet beat you to the punch." She said, observing what I had already known.

"Yeah, I was hoping you could do something about that."

"What do you need me to do then?" She asked, not knowing that I was about to make her mad again, but not as bad as last time.

"Bellow out my name, so she knows it, and has to think to herself 'what did that kid do to warrant his name screamed so loud?'"

"I hate you sometimes Oliver." She said, not really meaning it.

"And that's why your dating Mike, and not me," I said, patting her on the shoulder, "but there is one other thing you could do for me."

"Haven't I don't it already?" She said, sarcasm evident in her voice.

"Nope, I just want you to mention to Sarah that Jon is thinking about ordering from the menu."

"I can't believe he still uses that joke," Cate said, "Alright, hold on."

I turned from her and began walking towards Mike again.

"What was that all about?" He asked.

"Oh just stacking the deck in my favor" I said, as I calmly watched as Cate walked over to Sarah, whispered in her ear, and walked away.

And as Sarah walked briskly towards Jon, each footfall echoing louder than the last, the grin that I hate so much I loved to see spreading across Mike's face. And as Sarah was talking to Jon, with herself positioned between Jon and the new girl I could hear Mike say "You sly bastard you."

A smile spread across my face as I thought to myself your not getting this one Bluemet.


	2. Moving in the Neighbors

_2. Moving in the Neighbors._

_Two hours later practice was over, and we began packing our instruments into their cases in the instrument room. I couldn't help staring at the new girl, and it was sort of embarrassing because it seems that everyone else knew it, including Jon Bluemet._

"_So now's your chance man, go talk to her, ask her how she liked the first practice." Mike said, practically ordering me to do it._

"_Now how would that look Mikey?" I asked him, "I mean, how would you feel if some random guy just came up to you after your first band practice at your new school and started asking you all these personal questions?"_

"_I would feel like taking my pants off." Mike said, smiling, and raising his hands to ward of my forthcoming blow. As he deflected my punch, a hand materialized out of nowhere and connected to his cheek with a satisfying SMACK._

"_Owwww! Man, today isn't my day." He said, rubbing his most recent wound._

"_That was mean Mike" Cate said, walking around and putting her arms around me "I wish everyone was as kind and considerate as Oliver here." _

"_Hey, hey, hey!" Mike said, pulling Cate of me and back onto him, to which she resisted slightly, "in case you missed something, that was __sarcasm_"

"And in case you missed something, I didn't like it regardless."

"Alright, stop, it was mostly my fault, I knew you would pull something like that, because I would have too. I just set you up for it." I confessed.

"Yeah, well, we have to go," Cate said "my mom just sent me a message and she is waiting for us."

"Alright, catch you later Alan." Mike said, taking Cate's hand and walking to the double doors.

"See you punks later." I said. I hefted my baritone up and pushed it into it's "cell" actually just a square box made out of plywood. Walking outside to wait for my own mom, Jackson Dabley, another friend of mine, although a "lesser" one, because he was a woodwind, came up to me and said: "So Oliver, whose the new girl?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen her before." I said, knowing full well where this conversation was going, but resigning myself to talk about it once again.

"We all could tell that!" Alex Landry, another woodwind chimed in "you couldn't stop staring at her."

"Okay guys, give it a rest, I already got an earful of this same stuff from Mike, and I'm not really in the mood for it." Raising my hands, hoping they would take the hint. They did, they are all good friends of mine, having known me since 8th grade. They said their goodbyes and got into their cars. My mom was late, once again, a trait I swear that she inherited from her mother. Usually I would ride with my sister, but she left with her friends, and left me stranded, a fact which I resented her for, but I forgive her, because I would have done the same thing to her. I saw a car pull up, which wasn't my mom either, but as I was watching the student enter the vehicle, my eyes passed upon the black hair. Almost as if a magnet was inside of my eyes, I couldn't look away. It was a little windy outside and her hair was blowing a bit in the wind. It looked……..almost…..heavenly. Forgetting all about my mom, I don't remember how long I stood there, but I saw my mom eventually drive up, about fifteen feet away from me, and past the girl. _God bless your inability to park close to me mother_. I thought as a walked briskly towards her Buick. Out of the corner of my eye I could see her head turn slightly in my direction as I walked past her. I opened the door of my mom's car, taking special attention to catch a glimpse of her in the rearview mirror, and sat down.

"How was practice?" My mom asked, purely for the sake of conversation.

"Same as usual" I said, plugging in my head phones into my ipod. I watched her some more, and then I noticed a blue Audi drive up, the kind of car Mike would describe as "zippy" and I would describe as "expensive." The girl got in the car, and as we were driving home, their car fell in right behind us. Trying to focus on the song, trying to focus on the view, trying to focus on anything but the fact that the car was right behind us, matching us almost turn for turn, but nothing was working, I couldn't help but notice that the car was passing almost every major subdivision in High Plains, and following us.

When we finally made it home I got out of the car, looking to see how far the Audi would go. Unbelievably, the Audi turned into the house that was just a few house down from mine, the only one for sale in the general area, well away from all the major subdivisions. The girl lived closer to me than any of my friends. Smiling, I went inside to rest, it had been a long practice, and I was ready to get some sleep. I noticed my dad's work van was home when we pulled up, and wasn't surprised to see him asleep in his recliner, with golf on the television and a novel folded across his lap. I quickly threw on some shorts, took of my band tee shirt from freshmen year, and collapsed on the bed. I got a good 30 minutes of sleep in before I was interrupted by my dad. "Alan, wake up, put a shirt on, and come down stairs."

Not really wanting to, but also not wanting to disobey my dad, I complied, and went to see what was going on. I saw a man and two kids, a boy and a girl, standing on my front porch. 

"Alan," my dad said, gesturing towards to newcomers "this is Mr. Richards."

"Pleased to meet you Alan." Mr. Richards sad, extending his hand. I extended my own and shook his hand, his grip was firm, as I expected, he looked like he spent a lot of time fine tuning his body.

"By all means," the boy said "ignore us, we don't mind."

"Hold on Dan, I was getting to that!" Mr. Richards said.

"These are my two youngest children, Dan and Amanda." He said, each kid smiling. They couldn't have been more than 14, and it was apparent that they were twins, they each had the same color eyes, and they both had black hair.

"So you woke me up to introduce me to the new neighbors?" I asked, hoping that the girl I saw earlier would be introduced soon, although I did not see her.

"No, we are going to exploit your free labor to help me move them into their new house!" My dad said, patting me very forcefully on the back with his hand.

"That is of course if you don't mind Alan." Mr. Richards said.

"I had nothing else better to do today anyway Mr. Richards." I said.

"That's going to get old, I can already tell, just call me Todd." Mr. Richards said.

"Lets go then!" My dad said, he was always eager to help out, it was just his nature, and I had to admit, it was addicting. We all started walking towards their house, and I saw a massive trailer parked in the driveway. It had to be at least fifteen feet long, and from what I could tell, it was full of stuff, from top to bottom. Noticing the look on my face, Dan said : "Now you see why we needed your help huh?"

"Yeah, is it too late to back out now?" I asked, not really meaning it.

"Don't even think about it," my dad shot back, "like it or not, your get to help." I could see the Richards looking at me and my dad, they obviously didn't know that neither of us meant what we were saying, but to an outsider it appeared that I was being an insubordinate little kid, but our banter was well met, and we both knew it, so neither of us cared if nobody else got it. The house was a big house, it had four bed rooms, and five bathrooms. The back yard was very big, with a giant pool smack right in the middle, that was as deep as 10 feet in some places. There was adequate shade all around the house, and a long Pecan tree was about ten feet from the front door, and it was a towering tree. As we approached the front door, it was opened by yet another black haired lady, wielding a plate which was stacked with chocolate chip cookies, and behind her came the girl, holding a pitcher of milk and enough cups for all of us.

"Now before we get started, I want to introduce you to my oldest daughter, Bethany, and my wife of 19 years, Jill." Todd said.

"Good to meet both of you," My dad said, "This is my youngest son, Alan, and I'm Dave"

_Bethany_ I thought _Her name is as beautiful as her face._

"Hello Alan," Bethany said, recognition showing in her eyes, "I thought I recognized you."

I started to say something when my dad interrupted with a loud and hardy: "Lets do this!" completely running any chance I had of talking to her, or so I thought.

"Alright, Alan, you help the youngins' move their stuff upstairs." Todd said.

"No problem." I said, moving towards Dan and Amanda, noticing that Bethany had yet to move.

"Hey Beth, your supposed to be helping Alan and the wonder twins." Mr. Richards said.

"Alright, I was just making sure you weren't referring to me as a "youngin" She said, taking a step towards the long van.

"Trust me," Dan said, looking at me while we were walking towards the van, "your going to regret saying you'd help us.

"Is that so?" I asked. "I'll have you know that I happen to like physical labor."

"Yeah, that's why your in band." Dan said sarcastically.

"Well of course, what is more physical than band?" I asked, knowing full well the answer that was going to be given.

"Practically everything," he replied "football, baseball, tennis, and all the other sports." 

"Do you even know what the band does?" I asked him "or are you basing this off your old school?"

"Well," he said, his voice faltering a little "the band at our old school didn't do anything, just sucked at football games."

"Well the High Plains Bobcat Marching Band is a very physical one." I said, noticing that Bethany was now focused on me, as was Amanda. "we run two laps around the football field before every practice, we have to do ten pushups if we make a mistake, regardless of the mistake, and our stretches every morning are just a little bit less than that the football team, or any other sports team in High Plains, usual."

"Wow!" Amanda said, "I might get in the band again."

"Yeah right Amanda!" Bethany said, pushing her little sister, "you dropped band because you couldn't find any cute guys!"

"Yeah, but the band at our old middle school sucked!" She said, looking at her sister, clearly annoyed that she was being teased about such a matter, "if all the boys do what he says they do, then there has to be a cute one out of all of them!" 

"HEY!" My dad yelled "don't let him stand there and talk all day! You won't get any work done if all you do is listen to my son. Also, most of what he's saying isn't true, I never owned a helicopter, and that scar on his forehead isn't from getting in a knife fight with a pissed off Puerto Rican."

Trying not to laugh, and also trying to appear serious as I made my retort, I turned to my father and bellowed back: "OLD MAN! If you say one more thing from that senile mouth of yours, I will take mom away from you and put you in an evil nursing home!"

"You try it!" My father shot back.

"What was that all about?" Bethany asked, slightly amused, and even more confused.

"That's just my dad and me being our normal-self's." I said.

"That was creepy," Amanda said "what helicopter, and what scar?"

"Oh, well apparently when I was younger I used to tell my cousins that my dad owned a helicopter, and once I got a cut on my leg, and I told them that I got it by climbing on the helicopter and trying to fix the rotor. And this scar," I said, while parting my hair down the middle, revealing my most prominent scar, a horizontal line about and inch and a half long, smack dab in the middle of my forehead "I got when I was three, apparently I ran into our suburban when it was parked in our front yard."

"So you ran into a parked car?" Dan asked, barely able to stop his laughter. "Even my dog wasn't stupid enough to do that!"

"Well I was only three." I said, hoping he would drop it.

"Lets get this stuff unloaded," Amanda said "the faster we get this done the faster I am able to talk to mom about rejoining band."

"I can't believe your going to do that." Bethany said.

"Oh believe it sister, if all the guys are as cute as him, then I'm definitely in."

I watched as Bethany's face turn bright red, she turned to hide it, but I had already seen it.

"You flatter me Amanda." I said, bending over to pick up a box that was much heavier than it originally appeared to be. "Holy crap!" I said, almost dropping the box, "what is inside this box?"

"Those are my dad's hardback books, well, those are _some_ of my dad's books. You see that stack there?" She asked, pointing to a literal wall of boxes.

"Yes……" I said, "are they all hardback?"

"Only half!" Dan said, "what's the matter? Afraid of carrying a few books?" He said, moving to the wall and extending his arms as far as they could go. He continued this for a few minutes, asking for no help, and Bethany, Amanda and me just laughed at him. "Aren't you supposed to be helping us?" Dan said after about five minutes.

"Well, if you wanted help I figured you'd ask for it." I said, smiling and moving to help him. I got a grip on the top box and pulled it down, slowly handing it off to him. Noticing him struggle, I offered to help, but he quickly rejected my offer.

"He has to look good and buff for all the ladies!" Amanda said.

"Yeah," Dan grunted, very winded already, "if only there were some good looking ones here."

"What was that Danny boy?" Bethany teased "I couldn't hear you, you were breathing too heavily for me to understand what you said."

Lifting a box with both hands, I started to follow Dan inside the house. He was slowly making progress with the heavy box, but it was taking its toll on me. I didn't want to imagine what it was feeling like for him. He stopped in what I assumed was the living room, and set the box down with a heavy "THUMP" right in the middle of the floor.

"Is that where these go?" I asked.

"Well, we are supposed to put them over there," he said, pointing a few feet away, "but I didn't want my arms falling off."

"I'm assuming I'm not supposed to tell your sisters that you said that?" I said, trying to suppress my laughter, but not doing a good job.

"If you would, I do have an image to maintain after all." He said, slowly catching his breath back."

"No need to maintain that image little brother," Bethany said, walking backwards into the room, "we heard that little exchange."

"Yeah, Amanda said, "you little weakling."

"Did I miss something here?" Dan asked, looking at the girls. "I managed to carry one box all by myself, while it is taking both of you girls to carry one box, so clearly I'm not a "weakling."

Noticing the look on my face, Bethany said "Don't worry, we always give him crap, it's just what we do."

"Ah," I said, "makes sense."

"Your supposed to be on my side Alan!" Dan said.

"Hey," I said, raising my hands in a 'I give up gesture' "I'm not getting in the middle of this unless I have to."

" A wise move." Mr. Richards said, backing into room, carrying one side of a large bookcase.

"Now you punks get out of the way or it's your fault if we trip." I heard my dad say.

"Did you just call me a punk?" Dan said.

"Yes he did punk." Bethany said.

"I'm not a punk!" Dan said.

"Yes you are," Mr. Richards said, "there is even scientific proof."

"Right, well I'm off to get more books from the stupid van." Dan said, walking off.

"I'll go help him." I said, following right on his heels. The rest of the unloading went by without a hitch, from the brief lulls in moving that we got I managed to find out a little more about Bethany: her favorite color, author, and food. I learned that she had been playing the clarinet for almost her whole life. We agreed to hang out after they had settled in, and I even convinced her to come over to my house and try out playing some video games with me. It took us less than three hours to completely unload the van, and then, as Mrs. Richards was serving us supper Mr., Richards dismissed us.

"We can put everything where it goes without help, but thanks for helping me move all the furniture in Dave, without you I would have had to pay a mover, and those guys are expensive to hire nowadays.

"Well, if you need anything else, just let us know, I wrote our phone number down on that piece of paper I left on your table, and my cell is on there too." My dad said.

Mr. Richards held out his hand to my dad and said "Thanks again for all your help Dave."

My dad took his hand and shook it, while replying "Always ready to make a neighbor feel welcome."

"And thank you too Alan," He said, shaking my hand too "I needed someone to distract the punks while I was unloading the heavy stuff."

"Goodbye Dave and Alan." Mrs. Richards said.

"Goodbye Jill," my dad said, "and say goodbye to all the punks for us too!"

"I'm not a punk!" Dan yelled!

"Ignore him, he actually is," Amanda yelled back at us "OW! What are you hitting me for punk!" I looked at my dad and we both smiled.

"Well that was a fun way to spend the afternoon," He said, pushing me slightly, "that Bethany girl was kind of cute."

"Trust me old man," I said, "I picked up on that _way_ before you did."


End file.
